Saving Mizuki
by Lucillia
Summary: Mizuki's path to salvation hadn't all been roses. The man's thirst for power and respect didn't magically vanish with his decision not to betray Konoha, and old habits die hard. Companion to and expansion of the oneshot Salvation.
1. Prologue: The Good Life

Mizuki smiled as he stepped into his home where his wife Tsubaki was making dinner and his children were rolling around on the carpet either playing some sort of game, or fighting over whoever had cheated at said game. Life was good. He had power, he had respect, and he had the love of a good woman and the perfect family. While he himself wasn't in the Hokage seat, he had the ear of the man he'd helped put there.

At one point, nearly a decade ago, he had almost thrown all of that, and the family he hadn't yet had at that point away for something that would have led to his death instead. A traitor to the village named Orochimaru had played on his one major fault, and had almost led him to his doom. Had he not remembered the words and utter contempt of an alternate version of the Rokudaime - who he had met during an escort mission years earlier when the man had saved him and his teammate from an enemy-nin - he would have either died that night or been executed soon after.

While he'd started out with the best of intentions long ago, he had grown cruel at one point. He'd had a jealous streak which had initially been a mile wide, and grew even wider as the years passed until it had practically consumed him. That jealous streak had nearly destroyed all of his friendships and driven away those he held dear. Tsubaki, who had loved him for the good man she had seen him to be, for the kind personality which had increasingly become a front over the years, would never have condoned his betrayal of Konoha. Iruka, whom he'd initally befriended because the younger boy had looked up to him would have one day spotted the fact that he'd been deliberately making him miserable to make himself feel better after people payed attention to the poor orphan rather than him, as he'd become more blatant in his cruelty over the years. His new Hokage Naruto...Well, back then, he'd only seen the demon he'd initially believed the young man who had been a child at the time to be, the power it had and never used, and its possible use to him back then.

The first time he'd been kind to Naruto, it had been to sabotage him. The second time he'd been kind to the boy, it had been to lure him into a trap. The third time he'd been kind to the boy, it had been out of self-preservation as he realized what had caused the contempt in the adult Naruto's eyes, and that it had meant his death. Self-preservation eventually gave way to friendship, and with that friendship, all of the things he'd thought he'd deserved, the things that Orochimaru had falsely promised him, came to him.

As his children, his older son who looked so much like his mother, and his younger son who was his spitting image, complete with his bluish white hair raced up to greet him, he found himself remembering the early days when he had started on the path that had led to where he was now...


	2. A Wager Lost and A Friendship Born

Mizuki stared down at the creature that was wearing his hitai-ate as they made their way to Ichiraku's. He'd made the bet for his hitai-ate and a trip to Ichiraku's with the kid because he'd been so certain that the demon whom he was starting to see apparently didn't remember being a demon, and actually thought it was a human child wouldn't be able to get the Mizu Bunshin down in under three hours. He'd had serious doubts that the creature would have been able to create a single Mizu Bunshin before the dawn deadline he had set and pass his test.

He'd come up with learning the Mizu Bunshin as the Make Up graduation exam on the fly, because he'd been forced to cancel what he'd originally been planning to do because he'd realized that it would lead to his death. Had he had the demon steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals in order to frame him, odds were he would not have lived to see the dawn, and his demise would be at the demon's hands. He could get away with making Naruto a Genin for passing his test, as the students who had failed the graduation exam had twenty-four hours in which to appeal the decision and prove themselves capable of passing. Almost every student who took this option failed again anyways. That had not been the case for the Demon who had apparently been playing at being Dead Last and Class Clown to get Iruka's attention for some strange reason.

He shouldn't have been too surprised that the child had passed this test now that he thought about it. The boy who had become the cold man he'd met on that escort mission would have undoubtedly passed the "Make Up Exam" that he'd come up with, considering the fact that he'd obviously survived the night and become a Ninja. Three fails, and you leave the Academy for good, and today, before he passed the Make Up Exam which he would be bound to honor since the child would go to Iruka and the Hokage if he didn't had been the Uzumaki's third failure.

The creature, who had been rather determined with his graduation and favorite food on the line, had gotten the Mizu Bunshin down to the point that he could create hundreds of the Water Clones in one go in under three hours, and he had been forced to pay his part of the wager, as he knew that the creature would throw an almighty stink that might result in him being seriously injured if he didn't.

Despite the fact that he hated ramen, he was being forced to go to Ichiraku's.

With his bandanna style hitai-ate covering the boy's bright blond hair to the point that only a couple of spikes stuck out of the bottom, the mini demon was nearly unrecognizable, especially after he'd removed his jacket which had gotten soaked during the lesson. Several people had done double-takes when they finally realized who was walking beside him wearing his hitai-ate, and grinning proudly.

Eventually, they reached Ichiraku's ramen stand. The one place that Iruka knew never to drag him to. The demon seated himself at the counter and promptly ordered a large miso ramen with pork. He ordered nothing. The creature noticed this, and looked at him in confusion.

"Why aren't you getting anything?" the creature asked.

"Because I can't stand ramen." he replied as nicely as he could considering the situation.

"How could you not like ramen?" the creature asked, looking genuinely shocked that someone didn't like ramen.

"There was an incident a while back, and even smelling it makes me sick now." he said, hoping that the demon wouldn't ask him to further elaborate and bring up memories best forgotten, but knowing that he'd have no such luck.

"Oh, kinda like how I am with Inarizushi and Kitsune Udon." the demon replied as he wolfed down his ramen, those sharp fang-like teeth showing every time he took a bite of his food. "That's all one of my caretakers fed me while I lived with her. I got sick, and the Old Man took me to live somewhere else. The people at the Orphanage the Old Man moved me into made me eat all sorts of yucky vegetables, and now I don't like vegetables either."

When the demon had finished his bowl of ramen, he waved away the second bowl that the stand proprietors who seemed to genuinely like the creature had already prepared for him. Apparently, the demon frequented their establishment a great deal outside the times Iruka bribed it with ramen in an attempt to get it to behave, and the stand owners knew the best way to keep the creature placated.

"I don't want Mizuki-sensei to get sick." the demon said as he looked at the bowl that he'd just declined sadly.

He jerked in his seat. The demon had actually shown concern for his wellbeing.

"Thank you Naruto-kun." he said as he paid for the single bowl of ramen he'd purchased, relieved that the child hadn't eaten through his wallet like he did to Iruka when the man brought the creature here.

He and the demon went their separate ways after that. When he got back to his apartment after he'd put the demon's name on the list of graduates, it was to find Tsubaki waiting on his doorstep with a meal that she had specially prepared for him. His girlfriend had a sweet smile on her face as she welcomed him home, and he let her inside. The woman who couldn't see him for what he was, had loved him since day one, and trusted him implicitly. In the beginning, he had loved that in her, at some point however, when he'd realized how weak he was and that power was worth more than friends, he saw that for the stupidity and weakness it was.

He may not have tricked the demon this evening and betrayed Konoha, but that had been more out of the fact that he wouldn't survive the night if he did so, than out of any love of his home and the woman who stood before him, holding a plate of food that would need to be reheated since it had long since gone cold.

Just how long had Tsubaki been out here waiting for him anyway?

&!&!&!&

At an apartment across town, a boy added one name to the rather short list of people that seemed to care for him, and whom he looked up to, as he got ready for bed.


	3. The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

The day after the graduation exam, Mizuki, who had not slept well at all the night before, had been careful getting out of bed in order not to disturb Tsubaki who had stayed over, since it was still rather early in the morning. Despite the fact that he wished it was so since he was dead tired, his responsibilities at the Academy didn't end for the year until the newly minted Genin were all packed off on their teams and sent out for their final test before joining Konoha's shinobi forces. In the week between now and then, there would be several tasks that needed to be done including a final cleaning of the classroom before he went on his all too brief break between academic years.

As he went through the rather mundane routine of getting ready for the day and making his way to the Academy where he would likely be scraping chewing gum and a variety of other unpleasant substances from underneath the desks as part of the end of the year cleaning, he told himself that this was one more day that he probably wouldn't have had if he had gone through with his original plan last night. It was dull, it was boring, he received no more respect than he had the day before, but above all, he was alive. He kept telling himself that as he took in the classroom that looked neat enough on the surface aside from a number of smudges, but was undoubtedly far worse underneath, upon his arrival.

As the Assistant Instructor, cleaning up the messes that were lurking beneath the surfaces of the room, including the possible end of year pressure sensitive explosive tag that was meant to take out the Academy or at the very least one of the teachers was his responsibility. A responsibility that he hated, but wasn't allowed to shirk nonetheless. He had headed over to the first of the desks with his utility knife when his "friend" whom he'd spent several years making miserable at every opportunity had shown up and told him that the Hokage wanted to see him. Surprised, and somewhat apprehensive, he followed his friend to the Administrative complex that was loosely attached to the Academy.

As he got closer to the Hokage's office, he began to worry that the old man had found out about Orochimaru, and the plans he had rather hastily scrapped the night before. That worry rapidly turned to a fear that took every last bit of his effort to conceal as he began to come to believe that there was a possibility that the only way he'd be leaving the Hokage's office would be in ANBU custody if not feet first and bleeding on the carpet. He was practically trembling as he made his way through the doors of the office.

Far from being the slightly ridiculous old man that he'd come to believe was senile that he had spotted in the company of the demon child he'd nearly tricked last night, the Hokage looked almost gravely serious. It was in this moment, he remembered the stories he had been told about the "Professor" in his younger days, the stories of a man who had been taking down armies long before the Yondaime had come on the scene with his Hiraishin which had made short work of Iwa's forces in the last war. After seeing the man with Iruka and the Kyuubi brat, and hearing Orochimaru's speeches about how the Sandaime had long since gone senile, seeing this side of him had been chilling to say the least.

"Mizuki, may I ask why you saw fit to add Uzumaki Naruto's name to this year's list of graduates after Umino Iruka had failed him?" the Hokage asked sternly as soon as he stood in front of the Sandaime's desk at attention, barely keeping his urge to panic in check.

"The...Uz- Uzumaki Naruto was successfully able to challenge the Jutsu portion of his exam before the twenty-four hour limit had passed." he replied carefully.

Iruka had looked shocked at this, and the Hokage had gone from stern to thoughtful.

"And, how did he accomplish this?" the Hokage asked.

"He managed to master the Mizu Bunshin in under three hours." he replied, still somewhat amazed that the child had been able to do that, amongst other things, as his mind had gone places in his sleep that he had not wanted it to go last night.

Mastering the Mizu Bunshin to the level that the Uzumaki had usually took weeks or even months depending on one's approach. The boy who had been desperate to pass as this was the boy's final failure before he was dropped from the ninja program altogether had come up with some off the wall solution two hours into their training and next thing he knew, there were hundreds of water clones littering the training field. As he considered how quickly the boy had learned that C-Ranked Jutsu, he'd found himself shuddering as he realized that the boy could have quite likely learned something from the Forbidden Scroll in that same amount of time if he'd gone through with his plans.

Despite Tsubaki's best efforts to tire him out, he'd had a nightmare last night as his mind had connected several dots and a number of unfortunate implications began to sink in.

The thought of a Naruto who had mastered say the legendary Edo Tensei for instance scared the hell out him. He knew from experience that the kid had a skewed sense of Right and Wrong, and wouldn't hesitate to use something like the Edo Tensei if he thought it would gain him something he desperately wanted, even if he didn't really act like the demon he contained. It was quite possible that he could have ended up being a the sacrifice used to gain the boy an undead servant last night or worse, considering the number of horrors that were said to have been contained in that scroll.

Having extremely powerful techniques that you could use to make yourself a legend on the battlefield was one thing. Having said techniques be used against you was another thing entirely. A thing that he'd just very narrowly saved himself from experiencing.

Both the Hokage and Iruka had looked startled at his statement about Naruto's skills, but the Hokage, after briefly glancing over at the pictures of his predecessors that hung on the wall, rather quickly took it in stride. There was an oddly nostalgic look in the Hokage's eyes when he turned his attention back to him. Odd, one would think that the man would have looked sad after a glance at the picture of the man who had sacrificed himself to save the village from the demon that had been sealed into the Uzumaki. Instead, the Hokage almost looked proud.

"Very well, I will allow Naruto's graduation to stand." the Hokage said before seemingly dismissing them as he went back to his paperwork.

"Oh, and Mizuki." The Hokage said as he turned to leave.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Thank you." the Hokage said, giving him one of those smiles that he'd only seen directed at Iruka or the Uzumaki before.

He paused, standing there, not knowing what to think or how to feel. Only the day before, he had been planning on betraying this man. Now, when he would still leave if there was a chance that he wouldn't be executed for doing so, now, after he had planned on betraying the village and all it supposedly stood for only to have chickened out at the last second since his own miserable hide was more important to him than anything else, he had gotten the genuine smile and actual acknowledgement for something he had done from the Hokage that he had been craving for more than a decade.


End file.
